An Exploration
by Hergan
Summary: Oakkit loves to listen to the elder's stories of the old ThunderClan territory. So one day, after becoming an apprentice, she decides to go and see it for herself. Will she be able to survive the journey there? And what will she find once she arrives?
1. Prologue

A/N: I know this has nothing to do with the summary, but this needs to happen too.

Leafpool looked into the Moonpool once again. It was just like the first time ever, but something was different. _Yes, that's what it is: there's someone new among StarClan-_ Leafpool realized. _It's Graystripe!_

Leafpool turned over, looking around the new medicine cat den. In the corner of the den, Grousepaw slept. She was Leafpool's apprentice. Cinderpelt had passed on to run with StarClan several moons ago, and Leafpool hurt to think of the wise cat's death.

Quietly, Leafpool got up and walked out of the medicine cat den. This needed Firestar's attention right away.


	2. Chapter 1

Oakkit sat listening to the elders. She loved their stories, especially those that had to do with the old ThunderClan camp and territory. She wondered what it would be like to go there someday.

Maplekit, her brother, however, did not like the stories. He was sitting right next to her, playing with a piece of grass that he had picked up. He let it float away in the light breeze, then he'd run and pounce on it, grabbing it again.

"Come on, Oakkit. You're no fun! Pounce with me!" Maplekit interrupted.

"I'm trying to listen here, I like these stories," Oakkit complained.

"Weenie. Come on. You'll have fun!" Maplekit continued.

"I'm already having fun," Oakkit retorted. "Besides, we're _supposed_ to be listening to the elders. It'll help your warrior training later."

With a sigh, Maplekit settled down, and the two cats listened once more to the stories of the elders.


	3. Chapter 2

A/N: R&R! (wouldn't fit on the summary, unfortunately...)

"Would all cats old enough to catch their own prey come to the Highledge for a Clan meeting?" Firestar yowled.

It was the middle of the night and Oakkit was surprised by the announcement. She looked around for her brother and realized she was not in the nursery! The rising and falling form of Sandstorm next to her reminded her that she had accidentally fallen asleep with the elders! And there was Maplekit, sleeping a few paces away next to Longtail.

She got up and stretched, waking Sandstorm.

"Huh?" The ginger she-cat asked.

"Firestar's called a meeting!" Oakkit called excitedly, waking the other elders. She trotted over to the sleeping form of her brother and prodded it.

"Wake up sleepy-bones!" she called. "Firestar's called a meeting!"

"But it's not even dawn," Maplekit complained, but he got up.

Once everyone was properly woken up (at least in Oakkit's opinion) she raced forward until she was at the base of the Highledge, and waited for Firestar to speak.

"Cats of ThunderClan," Firestar began, "Leafpool has had a dream. Graystripe has died."

There were several murmurs of sadness from amongst the cats. Firestar let them continue for a time, but then silenced them with a flick of his tail.

"Therefore," he continued, "I need to pick a deputy tonight." He paused, apparently thinking his choice over, "I say these words before the spirits of all StarClan, that they may hear and approve my choice. Brambleclaw will be our new deputy."

The cats around the Highledge meowed congratulations, "Brambleclaw! Brambleclaw! Brambleclaw!" Brambleclaw looked smug to Oakkit, like he had been expecting this for some time, but had never been able to get it until now. But she didn't pay attention to this because her mother, Sorreltail, had found them and was busily herding them back to the nursery.

"Why do I have to have such rowdy kits?" she wondered aloud.

"What does 'rowdy' mean?" Oakkit asked innocently.

Her mother smiled down at her and said, "Not much. Let's get back to the nursery. You've had enough excitement for one night, I think." She continued to lead the two kits home, who were by now almost asleep on their feet.


	4. Chapter 3

It was a few days later and not much had been going on with the two kits. Oakkit was getting anxious, it seemed to her that she should have been apprenticed a long time ago, but Firestar seemed to have forgotten them. She was in the nursery now, play fighting with Maplekit.

"I'm Maplestar and I will win!" Maplekit began.

"Oh yah, well you can't be Maplestar if I'm Oakstar! _I _will win!" Oakkit retorted. She pounced, and playfully grabbed the loose skin on her brother's neck, letting her weight drag down so that she was next to him.

Maplekit was about to respond to the move, when a cry from the Highledge broke into their play.

"Would all cats old enough to catch their own pray come to the Highledge for a clan meeting?"

The two kits stopped at once as Sorreltail appeared. "Come on, you need to be there. Important stuff is going on," she said, nervously licking Oakkit's fur, which was ruffled from the play. "Clean up a little, will you?" she told her kits.

The two kits looked at each other. There was only one possible explanation for their mother's behavior. It was time for their apprenticeship!

The two kits allowed Sorreltail to clean them, and then they rushed over to the Highledge for the clan meeting. They sat next to their mother, proud that they would soon be apprentices.

"Cats of ThunderClan, it is time that two of our cats were apprenticed. Oakkit, Maplekit, step forward so the clan can see you."

The two cats looked at each other and excitedly stepped up so they were at the center of the group of cats.

"Oakkit, from this day forward, until you have earned your warrior name, you shall be called Oakpaw. You're mentor shall be Sootfur."

Sootfur looked surprised at the announcement, but graciously stepped up to his new apprentice.

"Mapelkit, from this day forward, until you have earned your warrior name, you shall be called Maplepaw. You're mentor shall be Cloudtail."

Cloudtail looked upon what would probably be his last apprentice, and smiled. The two new apprentices stood next to their mentors as the entire clan began to shout, "Maplepaw! Oakpaw! Maplepaw! Oakpaw!..."

The cats sat proudly in the center of the clan, until the meowing settled and the meeting was dismissed. Then they were lead to the apprentice den, and they began to settle into their new part of clan life.


	5. Chapter 4

It was several weeks after Oakpaw had been apprenticed and she was bored. Sootfur still seemed jumpy in the forest and nothing seemed to be very home-like. She wondered now more than ever what the old ThunderClan territory was like. But she was resolved to finish her warrior training, so she stayed put.

Sootfur was teaching her how to hunt voles and was demonstrating at the moment when a strange scent washed over her.

"Sootfur? What's that?" she asked.

He turned to look and lost the vole. "What? I don't see anything."

"It's a smell."

"I don't smell anything. Silly, it's probably the vole, and now you've made me loose it. You catch a vole if you want one."

Oakpaw didn't even try to point out that he was the one that wanted the vole in the first place and that _he_ was supposed to be teaching _her _how to catch a vole, and not the other way around. _Something is different about him than before,_ she thought, but she didn't know what.

"Now where were we?" her mentor mumbled.

Oakpaw tried to prevent herself from rolling her eyes. She already knew how to catch voles. She caught two yesterday.

"Oh yes!" Sootfur seemed joyful at his ability to remember what had happened. "Fighting!"

_This is better than catching voles,_ Oakpaw thought, but then realized something was _really_ wrong with her mentor.

"ShadowClan was attacking!" he exclaimed. Then he caught sight of Oakpaw, "SHADOWCLAN!" he yowled at her and sprung.

She did the only thing she knew how to do, she ran away from her mentor.

Quickly Oakpaw circled, so that she was behind Sootfur. In his crazy state, he hadn't even noticed his opponent was gone. She peered out of a pile of bushes at him. He was trying to catch his tail now, and there was foam coming out of his mouth.

_He's never been like _this_ before,_ she thought. _Something's wrong with him!_

She ran in the other direction, toward ThunderClan camp, to get Leafpool.


	6. Chapter 5

A/N: Sorry this took a little longer than I intended. I'm probably going to be slower to update in the winter months.

Oakpaw came back to the spot that she had left Sootfur to find that he was gone. Leafpool had come with, and she seemed very worried about the fact.

"What do you think is wrong with him?" Oakpaw wondered, worried for her mentor.

"I'm not sure, but I have a suspicion," Leafpool answered. She opened her mouth to scent the air.

"I think he went this way," she continued and began to pick her way through the underbrush. The two cats continued along their way, and soon came up to a deep hole in the ground. Oakpaw sniffed it.

"Hey! This is the scent that was strange in the area when we were catching voles!"

"That's badger." Leafpool explained, a look of worry crossing her face. "A sick badger too, if I'm not mistaking. We'd better hurry up!"

Leafpool sped ahead and Oakpaw tried her hardest to keep up, wondering why a sick badger meant that they would have to hurry. _Leafpool's not going to try to heal the badger too, is she?_ she thought.

In the meantime, Leafpool had gotten very far ahead of Oakpaw, and the new apprentice was lagging behind quite a bit. Slowly, the two grew apart, and Oakpaw had lost all sight of Leafpool. Doing her best, she tried to track her, but she had a very hard time doing this, and soon got off the trail completely. She looked around, but could see nothing. She sat down in the grass to think.

Slowly, the new scent washed over her. _Badger,_ she thought. _It's sick, according to Leafpool, so it shouldn't be interested in me._

This was the wrong thinking. Because as the badger crept over the ledge behind her, and saw her sitting alone in a pile of ferns, it was going to attack her. And just like it had attacked Sootfur and made him sick, so too would Oakpaw die.


	7. Chapter 6

A/N: At the moment, Oakpaw is not dead, even though the ending of the last chapter may have lead you to believe that.

Oakpaw looked behind her just in time to see the badger running at her, white foam flying out of it's mouth.

"Ahh-" she screamed and ran away.

As she ran, she scented something different. It was cat scent, but it was much different than ThunderClan scent. She had crossed a border!

She tried to loop around, but she didn't cross the border. She looped again, and still wasn't anywhere near where she wanted to be. Now completely lost and confused she just headed strait, no longer caring where she went. She kept at a fast pace, imagining that the badger was still only pawsteps behind her, no matter how far into enemy territory she was.

She looked around her as she was running, noticing the change in the forest. The trees were different, pines she thought, and the forest was much darker than it had been in ThunderClan territory.

Suddenly, in front of her- there was a stream. She was going to fast to stop, and she figured the water would throw the attacker off her trail. She waded in, deciding to get away from the imagined pursuer, but soon the water was too deep for her to continue to wade. She would have to swim. But the instant she took her paws of the bottom, she was swept along with the current. She tried to make a headway, and ended up getting herself turned around. Now she no longer even knew witch direction she came from.

She struggled in the water for a time, but her long run hadn't helped matters. She was tired. So...sleepy-

_Where am I? s_he thought. _Does it matter?_ Her feet touched the bottom again and she took a few slow steps forward, but then collapsed, tired, cold,wet, and utterly confused. The stream lapped at her unconscious body, and her head began to sink...


	8. Chapter 7

A/N: Please review!

Oakpaw woke up and stretched. She looked around, expecting to find the nursery, but didn't. She then remembered that she wasn't supposed to be in the nursery any more. But that still didn't explain where she was. The apprentices had a den, but it didn't look anything like this.

As she became more aware of her surroundings, she noticed that she was very wet. She looked down. The cave she was in had a stream running through it in the back, and she had been sleeping in the stream! _Why would I have done that? s_he wondered. _That's a stupid thing to do. I might have drowned._ She shook herself, water spraying everywhere. _Where am I?_ she wondered again.

The more she noticed, the colder she got, so she walked out of the stream and toward the mouth of the cave. As she got closer she realized that it was raining outside. _Great,_ she thought, _just what I need. Rain._ She stepped outside, anyways, looking around.

_This isn't ThunderClan territory._ She continued to walk through the pine forest, the rain soaking her more than the river had.

Suddenly, there was a streak of black and a cat pounced on her. She twisted under his weight and tried to run away, but it was pointless.

"So, you woke up," he said, amusement in his voice. Oakpaw noticed that his claws were sheathed, a good thing, because she was already faltering under his weight. She collapsed.

"Wh- what- who-" she stammered.

"Wingedtail," he greeted and jumped lightly beside her. She stayed down, unable to do anything else. "How'd you get on ShadowClan territory?"

"ShadowClan?"

"ShadowClan. Speak, or I'll have to turn you in. ThunderClan isn't the most respected of the clans in ShadowClan at the moment."

"Then why _didn't_ you turn me in?"

"Because I am not necessarily _like_ the rest of ShadowClan, now am I? Talk."

"I don't know."

"What do you mean, 'you don't know?' You have to know!" he shouted, hissing in her face.

"I- I-"

"You're worthless. Your just a scrawny little kit. What the heck is your name, anyways?"

"Oakpaw?"

"Well, Oakpaw, I can tell you that your life is about three seconds from being over if you don't answer the question RIGHT NOW!" he practically had jumped in frustration.

"O-okay... uh... I really don't remember anything... just Sootfur... he was foaming and yowling that Sha- that you were attacking... and then I woke up in some cave..."

"I put you in the cave. I found you unconscious in a stream."

"The stream, does it flow through the cave?"

"No. There's no stream in the cave, no-"

"Then why did I wake up all wet, in a stream, in a cave?"

"I think you are imagining things. There is no stream in that cave."

"I saw a stream..." Suddenly, Wingedtail disappeared, the world turning a new color. A tortoiseshell she-cat came over towards Oakpaw and rested her chin on Oakpaw's head. The rain continued to poor, and Oakpaw shivered.

"Hello Oakpaw," the she-cat greeted. "My name is Spottedleaf. I must guide you. The cats of all clans are homesick. You must help. Tell Wingedtail to find ThunderClan and tell them goodbye for you."

"Ho- huh?"

"Goodbye Oakpaw. Seek the stories, follow the stream." And with that, Spottedleaf disappeared and the vision passed. Oakpaw found herself next to Wingedtail once again.

"Tell ThunderClan goodbye for me?" she asked, turning away.

"What are you doing?" Wingedtail asked her, still angry.

"Finding my way home. Our real home."

"Why? What are you doing here? I NEED ANSWERES!"

"No. You don't need to know right now and I will find the edge of your territory eventually. And the stream will guide me."

"What stream?"

"The stream in the cave. I will not be in these forests for a long time. Tell my mom goodbye." And Oakpaw turned on Wingedtail and walked back toward the cave.

"Your _mom_?" Wingedtail shouted behind her, but Oakpaw couldn't hear anything but the sound of the rain and an imagined stream rushing alongside of her path.


End file.
